In 2024, Coleman Hawkins signed a contract at KSU to play college basketball, earning him a $2 million NIL signing bonus. Caleb Williams played college football at the University of Southern California and was reportedly paid an estimated $10 million in endorsements. These deals were made possible by a change in status, allowing college athletes to profit from Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) sponsorships and endorsements. As soon as these NIL deals became available, memes like "Get That Bag", which alludes to athletes earning and chasing money, swiftly went viral on social media platforms, giving athletes influencer status overnight and reshaping college athletics and popular culture. As a college athlete, I support my peers being recognized for their hard work and talents, and earning the recognition and financial compensation they deserve. However, over the past year, as NIL partnerships have brought about a long-overdue boost in audience involvement and financial support for many collegiate athletes, they have also presented new demands, competitiveness, and consequences, which create challenges that college athletes might not be ready for.
The Impact of Personal Branding
Before NIL deals, college athletes brought in massive revenue for their schools through sponsorships and ticket sales. Since NIL deals surfaced and college athletes were allowed to be compensated personally, athletes embraced a hustle culture mentality to get the “bag”. The hype over the last year on social media features how NIL endorsements have transformed some student-athletes into personal brands, marking a cultural shift away from athleticism toward self-promotion. According to most college athlete enthusiasts, these deals are a step forward, but as beneficial as NIL deals can be, legitimate concerns have surfaced about how these endorsement deals can be detrimental to college sports and their athletes.
Famous culture critic John Storey (2009) suggests that popular culture is closely connected with capitalism. Evidence of this is present when NIL-endorsed athletes earn money while they manage the development of their brands and maintain their public persona. Storey (2009) argues that popular culture is a set of beliefs present in society at any given time involving ordinary people. NIL also represents this idea since consumers and fans will participate in activities favored or well-liked by other people, making it a type of popular culture and generating social media traffic and attention for athletes with endorsement deals. However, the rising demands placed on NIL endorsed athletes by consumers make it challenging for athletes to find a balance between investing time into their athletic training and developing their talents due to the conflicting demands of meeting their financial obligations and managing the pressures associated with brand development and maintenance.
More Than Just The Game
Athletes are proud of securing NIL deals and adding value to their sport, talent, and college, as evident in some of the most famous deals for college athletes. For example, in March of 2024, Olivia Dunne partnered with content monetization platform, Passes, as LSU’s first gymnast to secure millions of dollars, which involves balancing multiple sponsorships, public appearances, content production, academic work, and team commitments. These added responsibilities coupled with increased exposure draws attention from a larger, more diverse audience, perhaps some not solely interested in an athletes' talents.
Theodor Adorno (1944), a leading theorist of the Frankfurt School, was highly critical of passive consumption and its impact on culture and society. According to Adorno (1944), fans become active consumers of personas, and fans are manipulated by the content they consume rather than engaging with it, creating a never-ending consumption cycle. Applying this to NIL deals, one can argue that they underscore how the culture industry is engineered to meet fan expectations and also risks creating an atmosphere where you attract a complacent viewership. Before NIL deals, college athletes could count on earning a fan's support or social media attention based on their sports performance. Now, with the rise of social media attention and financial incentives, fans and spectators become part of a commodification system that prioritizes profit over the authentic passion for the sport itself.
New Pressures on Athletes
NIL deals raise significant questions. How does a college athlete balance their commitment to their team and their endorsement deals and commitments in an NIL deal? Are players going to focus more on marketability and self-promotion over their growth as athletes or being members of a team? The worry is that the focus on monetary gain may obscure what it means to be a student-athlete. Some of these pressures include a NIL athlete's pressure to play through injuries to fulfill sponsorship obligations or other team members feeling resentment when teammates have secured more lucrative deals overshadowing their contributions.
The pressure is real and reported by both NIL and non-NIL athletes in college sports. The University of Miami football team faced challenges when John Ruiz, who has poured millions into NIL deals for University athletes from different companies, provided NIL deals to high-profile recruits and transfer athletes. Concerns grew as the University prioritized these new arrivals for NIL endorsements, creating internal friction, ultimately negatively impacting team morale. In another example, Quinn Ewers was recruited out of high school to play for Ohio State and capitalize on NIL deals, for which he received over a million dollars even before ever playing a college game. This immediately raised questions about player equity and whether getting such rapid notoriety might distract him from his athletic performance - or even influence his college choice.
The Double-Edged Sword of NIL
Since the opportunity for college athletes to secure NIL deals has increased in popularity, athletes appreciate the recognition they are receiving for their talents and value, expanding a new facet of the sports culture industry. These opportunities have created more optimism among collegiate athletes, but also have presented concerns worth addressing. As NIL opportunities continue to be made available, colleges and athletes must handle these new responsibilities carefully to protect athletes and also to continue empowering student-athletes to thrive.
References
Adorno, T. and Horkheimer, M. (1944), Dialectic of Enlightenment, pp.1-12.
Storey, J. (2009). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, pp.1-1
NIL deals are a current topic that is interesting to evaluate, especially with how women athletes are balancing their sports, new financial responsibilities, and social media presence. When examining Olivia Dunne’s role in the NIL landscape through Andi Zeisler’s concept of the male gaze, it becomes clear that Dunne holds a position that reflects both empowerment and the pressures of societal expectations (Zeisler, 2008). As LSU’s first gymnast to secure multimillion-dollar sponsorships, Dunne embraces the financial opportunities NIL deals provide. Yet, her presence, especially on social media platforms, aligns with traditional beauty standards that cater to the male gaze. The pictures Dunne posts of herself versus the ones posted by the official LSU accounts are often compared because of the heavy editing of her body (Glaze, 2023). This represents how her brand emphasizes her appearance, mirroring Zeisler’s argument that women are positioned as objects for male consumption (Zeisler, 2008). Dunne has been called the current “it girl” (Glaze, 2023). Now more than ever, Dunne has to figure out how to navigate this public scrutiny and expectations that reinforce gendered expectations. Being a high-achieving athlete is already difficult, especially as a woman athlete. Balancing these expectations places a lot of responsibility on Dunne. Going forward, with her NIL deal, Dunne should consider using her platform to advocate for gender equality or redefining the narrative around women in sports. Dunne can shift the focus from her aesthetic appeal to athleticism and personal agency, aligning with Zeisler’s ideas for feminism and a progressive lens on how women are presented in popular culture.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Glaze, V. (2023b, August 18). Livvy Dunne deletes gym photos after being exposed for
Photoshop. Dexerto. https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/livvy-dunne-deletes-gym-photos-after-being-exposed-for-photoshop-2256416/
Zeisler, A. (2008). Feminism and pop culture. New York, NY: Seal Press. Pp. 1-21 Download Pp. 1-21.
Itamar Lappost
Nicholas, I loved reading your blog post and found it incredibly interesting!
ReplyDeleteI also want to look at your analysis of Olivia Dunne, but from a slightly different perspective. As someone who watches a ton of sports, and deliberately searches for athletics content when I am on social media, Dunne repeatedly shows up on numerous platforms in my searches and ‘Discover’ pages. I have an idea as to why this is, and it’s not dissimilar to yours or Itamar’s: she is a likeable person who might be relatable to me given my age and appealing to me through her looks. I find the latter of such interesting because of how she seems to be utilizing her sexuality as a way of promoting herself. This is replicative of Sarah Banet-Weiser’s concept of “popular feminism” where after 2010, the feminist community has focused on reclaiming the sexual identities of women (Banet-Weiser, 2015). This contrasts with feminism’s second wave during the mid-20th century, which saw women attempting to rid the view of themselves has purely sexual objects from society (Banet-Weiser, 2015). It is fair to say—given the content of Dunne’s regular posts ‘vlogging’ her daily life—that she has no problem with expressing her sexuality. In fact, the monetary benefits she has from doing so are immense—as you expressed in your op-ed. The important takeaway for me, however, is that “popular feminism” plays a distinct role in our lives as we pick up our devices and utilize social media platforms.
References:
Banet-Weiser, S. (2015). Popular misogyny: a zeitgeist.